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By Eric Kelderman. In recent months, higher-education news coverage across the country has focused on the increased share of public-college costs being shifted from state governments to students. The prevailing story line goes like this: States have “disinvested” in higher education during the past quarter-century, “cutting” money for public colleges and forcing institutions to raise tuition to cover the loss of tax dollars. As a result, many of the stories proclaim, students are neck-deep, or worse, in student-loan debt, which is hampering the economy and perhaps even forcing them to borrow more money for other purchases. The first part of this narrative isn’t untrue, according to the figures reported annually by the State Higher Education Executive Officers. More...

By Lee Gardner. The University of California at Los Angeles announced on Friday a $4.2-billion campaign, the largest goal sought to date by a public university in the United States. The Centennial Campaign is scheduled to conclude in 2019, the 100th anniversary of the university’s establishment. The bulk of the campaign’s total—$1.65-billion—is earmarked to build up the university’s research, while $1.5-billion would go toward student aid and faculty support, including endowed professorships. Some $800-million would finance a variety of construction projects. The remaining $250-million would be unrestricted. More...

By Clayton M. Christensen and Michelle R. Weise. Journalists, as 2013 ended, were busy declaring the death of MOOCs, more formally known as massive open online courses. Silicon Valley startup Udacity, one of the first to offer the free Web-based college classes, had just announced its pivot to vocational training — a sure sign to some that this much-hyped revolution in higher education had failed. The collective sigh of relief from more traditional colleges and universities was audible. More...

By JJ Feinauer. Humanities degrees are black holes where unsuspecting students trade in their parents' hard-earned money for some useless knowledge on how to contextualize the writings of Gabriel García Márquez.
Or at least, that seems to be the pervasive message out there for incoming college students looking to choose a major. But according to a report by Brigham Young University, those who choose to major in philosophy or comparative literature have more diverse career options than one might expect. More...

By Beth Akers. Last spring, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY) released new evidence on the relationship between student loan debt and home ownership.  It found that during the financial crisis, young people with student loan debt had become less likely than those without debt to take on mortgage debt (a proxy for home ownership) by the time they reached age 30.  It was suggested that this reversed the long-run trend in which individuals with student loan debt, who tended to be wealthier and more educated than their debtless peers, were more likely to own a home.  Although this analysis provided useful information about student loan debt, it is subject to a number of limitations. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. Milton Security Group, Inc., the premier manufacturer of the ICEGuard and Edge 7200 adaptive network security appliances and network management solutions, announced today the release of an integration system between their Cloud Authentication & Security (CAS for short) and Microsoft Office 365 for Education. More...

By Stefanie Botelho. The University of Houston has signed a deal with a group of investors to commercialize technologies created by its faculty, boosting the UH Energy Research Park as a focal point for entrepreneurial activity in the Houston region. The deal will be worth as much as $25 million, including $15 million for a new building at the research park, which will house laboratories and startup businesses. More...

By Lynn Russo Whylly. Transfer students just as likely to graduate from four-year colleges as direct university entrants.
Dozens of reports written over the last four decades have created the generally accepted theory that community college students who transfer to universities graduate at lower rate than do students who start out at four-year institutions. More...